Boris Grinstein reflects on the growing fleet of equipment working in his Action Metals recycling yard, just off the I-45 highway, near downtown Dallas. "Five or ten years ago, my dad would have said there's no way we can have all this machinery in this space. But we're doing it, and we're moving more tonnage than ever. Every yard has its limits, and we have ours, but SENNEBOGEN has helped us make the most of our space and maximize our potential."
Action Metals has been serving the Dallas / Fort Worth area since 1994. In 2018, Boris Grinstein took over the reins of the business from his father. He knew the business was in need of some renewal, needing both new customers and new equipment to stay competitive. Hard work won success quickly for this first goal, but the second goal proved more of a challenge. After purchasing a new converted excavator as his scrap-handler, he found it was far from the solution he had hoped for. "It was an awful experience," he recalls. "Everything was vibrating. The cab was swinging like a pendulum. It wore out real fast."
Moving ahead; moving up
Replacing the excavator with his first SENNEBOGEN 821 R-HD purpose-built scrap handler, his plan started to come together. Another old excavator was refitted as a mobile shear. The shear and material handler worked together to make the most of the yard's small acreage. Recently, Grinstein added a second SENNEBOGEN machine, moving up to the larger 825 R-HD with a SENNEBOGEN grapple.
"We were ready for a bigger unit; we do get some industrial scrap, which can be a bit heavier; we wanted more lifting capacity and a bit more reach. About 75% of our trade is retail, and we have 300 to 400 peddlers coming through here every day. So, we need a machine that's going to be a real workhorse."
"We had it running 48 hours a week for 52 weeks a year. We start up at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and go until at least 7:00 pm, or even 10 at night. We're open to the public from 8 to 6, but we have to process and load out our material to keep space open in the yard. The 821 has 8000 operating hours on it - it's had the life of almost a 5-year-old machine in two years."
This machine is perfect for us
Grinstein decided it was time to let the 821 "cool down a little," with the new 825 ready to do the heavy lifting. Now equipped with a lifting magnet, the 821 is now assigned only to work alongside the shear, clearing and stacking for just a few hours a day. "Over time, we'll start to bring the hours down on it so, in a year or two, it will be comparable to the other material handlers its age, in total hours."
The 825 is now piling on the long hours loading trucks with its scrap grapple. "The operators here love it," Grinstein reports. "The 825 is a big bad boy, with a 46-ft reach. The cab goes up a little higher than 821. It stacks higher and has more lifting capacity. We just had an industrial load come in, all plate and structural steel from the oil & gas industry. This truck had 8 pallets loaded on it, each almost 5000 lbs. The 825 didn't even need to move - it just picked them up, boom-boom-boom, no problem! It's a helluva machine! This machine is perfect for us."
"Lease by the hour"
As well as finding the "perfect" machine for his business, Grinstein also discovered SENNEBOGEN's innovative program to simplify financing costs. "Lease by the Hour" offers a flexible package that automatically adjusts the lease terms and costs according to actual usage. Customers have greater certainty of their machine's end-of-lease value, with "surprise" long-term costs for over or under hours.
"We found, with the way we use the machines, this works better for me," says Grinstein. "Because we'll be needing a new machine every few years; I won't have to worry about parts because it's leased, and it's covered. They know we'll put on 3000 - 4000 hours every year and they're ready with all the parts in stock. And now it's just a fixed cost for my quoting and business planning."
"I know what it's going to cost me to keep this machine running. I know how much steel I'm buying and how much it costs to run my machine, and I don't have the big headache down the road of having a 3-year-old machine with a lot of hours on it."
"I'm not upset that I didn't go with this for the first machine; I still have it as a backup machine. But I wouldn't buy another machine, outright."
"Beyond the machine"
SENNEBOGEN recently launched a new "beyond the machine" program, representing the company's commitment to machine uptime and customer satisfaction. Grinstein has seen that ideal in action. "I'm very impressed. The customer service is unbelievable. SENNEBOGEN is a major multi-national company and they worked with me individually - the one-on-one attention was awesome."
"When they sent me the 825, it only had a 1/2 yard grapple; today I got the ¾-yard grapple. I used the 1/2-yard for 2 months. They were like ‘We want to get you up & running; we'll send you a grapple for now and then your grapple will come and don't worry about it, we'll look after the cost.' This is how unbelievable they are to work with." Boris continued, "Let me tell you, I have been working with Constantino Lannes, the President and he said, ‘Here's my cell number, call me if you need anything.' This is the type of company I want to do business with."
"Back when I had problems with my 821, they stepped up and got me the parts at a wholesale price to get me up & running. I won't buy another material handler from anyone else."
